Is it hump day already? The vibes on the natural medicine feed are awesome this week - lots of people finding healing in the natural world, whether it's herbal medicines or the forest proper. This week we've been looking for someone to celebrate with a hump day suprise, and we've decided to award two green foresty kinda posts for two very green woman who have, despite being in the midst of their own struggles, managed to inspire us all for the care they show the Earth and everything in it.

This hump day initiative comes out on - you guessed it, a Wednesday, right in the middle of the week when things can be kinda tough. We reward SBI to members we feel need a little lift. You can read about the initiative here

We are looking for sponsors to help keep this initiative going - we're a small account that needs support. If you'd like to donate SBI or steem to this challenge, either for a week or longer, we'll acknowledge you in the title and image of any Hump Day posts and acknowledge you in the curation too. You'd be helping support natural healing content on the steem blockchain.

Hump Day Winner #2 - Two Winners

@artemislives and @trucklife-family really moved us this week with their posts about forests. The healing energy provided by these lungs of the earth are incredible natural medicine, as @truck-lifefamily writes:

We have become so dependant on them, yet do we really value them, do we show them the respect that they deserve. We need the trees to breathe, to clean the air around us. We need them to build. To create fires so that we can cook food that sustains us. Fires so that we can sit around and share our stories, sit around and create music. We need the trees for food, for nutrition. The leaves and flowers give us medicine. The fibre is used to make ropes and clothes, the sap for wines. But even more that all of that we need the trees for our own spiritual growth.

in this post that: @artemislives asks how she can 'respond to the weeping of my own heart as it resonates with the weeping of Mother Earth?', contemplating the destruction of forests and burning in Thailand and the pollution it causes, let alone the dispossession of forest dwellers. She informs us

So why doesn't Thai law prosecute the burners? Well, it all comes down to land ownership and the fact that this country doesn't have a social security system willing or able to manage the several hundred thousand indigenous people living semi-legally along its borders in the mountains. Without statehood, they are actually not able to become landowners, nor to farm officially. But they were born on this land and have lived there for generations. The Thai government does allow them foraging rights in the forest. And Buddhist Thailand would not overtly allow them to starve. And so the forests suffer. And those of us still here in Chiang Mai in late March each year weep - for the mountain and indigenous forest dwellers doing the best they can, for our collective apathy in solving land ownership and refugee issues, and simply because our irritated eyes sting from the smoky air.

These post got us thinking how often it's PEOPLE who are the natural medicine for the earth - the ones that write, that rage, that weep, that write poetry, that write letters to governments, that boycott companies responsible, that give so much of their energy to the natural world. We need you so much!

Pai Valley - Image by @artemislives

Congratulations on winning SBI, beautiful natural woman girls. We love you, and wish you strength to walk through the dark forests as well as the light ones. Look out for an upvote from them in the next few days, and for the rest of your steemlife!

We also loved other forest posts this week by NM supporters @eco-alex, @elamental and @metametheus - they've been resteemed in NM so go check them out and give them some love. Thanks to @eco-alex and @artemislives for coming up with this great idea to flood steem with forest lovin' - such a beautiful natural medicine for us all.

here - we'd love to have you!Natural Medicine Needs YOU! Please consider delegating to @naturalmedicine by clicking any amount below to help keep this collective going. The minimum entry for membership is 20SP (free for members under 150SP), and helps support and celebrate your work with natural remedies, healings and nurturings on this gorgeous blockchain! Join us on Discord

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